We take Beanie and Lulu to the park

GERONIMO by Layla Edwards

1/5/07 Friday “A Nice Afternoon”

Well the new year is launched. It is Friday, it is January 5th, on Monday it will be January 8th. I am upbeat. I think it will be a good year.

We took the dogs to Fort Lowell Park yesterday. Beanie in the front with Bill, Lulu in the backseat with me. It is our third excursion together. And quite an adventure for all of us. Nothing is routine about it yet.

It is high adventure from start to finish. It begins off with the adventure of getting the dogs into the car. Bill leads Beanie out on his leash, I lead Lulu out on her leash. Bill did not make me lock up the house because we took our dogs with us. I had never realized all his careful rules about shutting all the windows which open to front yard had to do with protecting the dogs.

He said I didn’t even have to lock the door. Altho I was stunned when we returned back home that I had left front door wide open, I had meant to close it but not lock it. When we go with the dogs to the park, Bill and I do not get testy with each other in the car. We are each sweet as sugar because we are on suspenseful adventure.

We drove into the parking lot and I took Lulu out on leash, he took Beanie out on leash, then he took both dogs, and said to me “you can swim for a whole hour.” And I saw him head with them in the direction of the duck pond. (He takes the dogs for long hike in the wash behind the park.)


It was a beautiful day. The sky was the prettiest shade of blue, the Sun was warm and brilliant. The adventure began at noon. So I had already spent the morning in the sunshine of the backyard wrapping Christmas presents. Beanie had already been taken for a little walk around the neighborhood. The idea of taking them both to the Park did not come to Bill till he had returned with Beanie to front yard, called for Lulu to be brought out, and was enjoying sunshine in front yard with both dogs.


“Maybe we can go to post office after park with the dogs and mail the presents” he said.

“No” I said, “I only started wrapping the presents, I will finish wrapping them when we get home, it takes a while because I also write out the cards.”

So I left everything on round metal garden table in backyard. The wrapping paper, the scissors, the scotch tape, the Christmas cards, and all the calendars we had bought as gifts for our families. I did not change my clothes. I was wearing long, very dark brown corduroy ruffled skirt, and a blue sleeveless blouse I had changed into because Sun was so hot. All I did before getting into backseat with Lulu was grab my bathing suit and towel.


After I saw Bill and the dogs off in the distance by the duck pond, I slipped my bathing suit on under my clothes, grabbed my swim bag, and headed for the pool. Samantha the head lifeguard was there.

“I guess the water is back up to 84 degrees?” I asked before I took off my clothes and dived in.

“No” she said, “it is 78, one of the heaters is broken and the boiler is broken too.”

“78!” I said, “that is too cold, I won’t go in the water.” I saw a lot of other swimmers, but some people like swimming in cold water, I like it warm.


So I stood on sunshine-filled deck and talked to the pretty brunette lifeguard because Sam had to go in office to do work. We talked for her whole shift, and had a very nice talk. Usually in winter the pool is deserted, except for the few hard core swimmers, which swim year round like me and Bill. But this winter the pool has been jammed every day, I can’t understand it. The pretty brunette lifeguard explained it is all businessmen who arrive on their lunch hour, they arrive in their fancy suits.

“I thought businessmen belong to a gym” I said.

She said “they swim here on their lunch hour and then go to the gym after work.”

I asked her if she was going to swim and she said 78 is too cold for her. Her parents own a share in a hotel on Alvernon Road, so she will swim in their nice warm pool after work. None of the lifeguards had been in the water, 78 is too cold for all of them.


I said to her “you must know a lot, because you are here every day watching.”

She said “yes, I am paid to observe.” I found it interesting about the phenomenon of the new Tucson businessmen, who drive up in fancy cars she told me, and swim on their lunch hour. I still find it odd they would choose the public pool.

Each time one arrived from bathhouse in swimsuit, I said “it is only 78.” I was trying to warn them.

But they said “perfect! I like cold water,” and dove right in for their work-out.


After her shift was finished a young man lifeguard came out and we chatted. He said “we are in an era of anything goes in terms of dress.”

And I said “that is a good thing then.”

He said “it is very extreme, anything goes means way out there.”

I said “that is a good thing, because of freedom, if way out there is the norm, then it means you can wear anything in between and be fine, it gives so much freedom.”

He said he doesn’t approve because “they show too much,” and he is Mormon and believes in modesty.

I said “I still think freedom is the best.”

He pointed out the pool is going to close in half an hour. And I said “I may as well summon up my courage to swim one lap, and then rush to hot shower.”

And I started to put the cream rinse in my hair. I said “I have to do this, otherwise it turns into dreadlocks from the chlorine.” He had a crew cut, but he said his hair is the same, when he has long hair it is thick and curly like mine, and turns into dreadlocks when he swims. It made me feel so close to him that we have the same hair and that same problem with dreadlocks from swimming.


“Once I visited my mom when my hair was all dreadlocks from swimming and she said I looked like a wild woman, it upset her.”

And he said “my mom does not like it when I have long hair.”

“I guess moms like us to look normal” I said. That must have been the conversation which led him to tell me the style of dress now is way out there. I must have chatted with him long time before I finally braved the water.


Then I summoned up all my courage and dove in and to my huge surprise the water was just perfect. I couldn’t believe I had carried on thru 3 shifts of lifeguards and with 3 lifeguards about the too cold water, when the first thing I did when I got into the water was to kick myself I had spent my whole swim time chatting on the deck.

The water was not 78, it was 83 and divine. Not only that, for first time in any of the pools, they had gotten the chemicals just right. They were finally very light and did not sting my eyes.

The swim might have been abbreviated, but it was glorious. I called out to all the lifeguards that the water is perfect.

It really was a heavenly swim. I couldn’t believe I had lucked out that way. I had assumed I would force myself to do one lap in freezing water, and instead I was having the loveliest swim of my life. It was such a treat.

I relished every instant of it because I knew the clock was against me now. Which has its own advantage. Usually when I swim I think “how will I possibly stay in long time.” I look at the clock and hope it will move faster. It made it delicious treat that I didn’t want the clock to move, I just wanted to stay and enjoy myself. It really was a nice swim and was a special treat, because I hadn’t expected to swim at all.


It was so much fun to be deliciously happy in the water when I thought my whole time would be spent on deck missing out on my swim. It was the surprise swim. Of course if I had known how wonderful the water was, I would have swam whole time, instead of schmoozing with lifeguards on deck.

But there is something special about how it all worked out. I mean it’s nice having all that long conviviality with the lifeguards, getting to know them and letting them get to know me, and the swim being the cherry on the top. It’s even nice that I carried on so much about the too cold water, and then when I hit the water was in pure joy. Because the lifeguards all work so hard to make the pool nice for people. They had no idea the water really was a joy till I squealed in ecstasy when I was in it.


Bill and dogs arrived at fence just at last minute of swim. “Do I have to get out now, Sam?” I asked.

She said “you have 3 more minutes.”

I said “I will take it.”

Bill called out, “Beanie found you, he found you in the pool.”

And I called out “Hi Beanie! Hi Lulu!” Then at the very last instant I began to swim towards my swim bag. “You don’t have to stay out and watch me, Sam” I said, “I am a junior lifesaver.”

She said “it is so nice out here in the sunshine, I want to stay out.” So then I rested on the ladder in the water, and Sam and the 2 lifeguards and I all kidded around about the pool.

I said “when are you going to put in those hot tubs in the girls and boys bathhouse, Sam?”

She said “when I win the lottery.”

There are no roofs in the bathhouses at Fort Lowell Pool. So I said “it will be nice to be under blue sky and sunshine naked in the hot tubs.”

And the lifeguards all teased each other about who will call up Jerry, who runs all the pools, to request the naked hot tubs.

“You call” the young man said to the pretty brunette, “but don’t give your name.”

The lifeguards have all been working like dogs to remove the algae from the water, plus all those phone calls to maintenance to repair the broken heater and boiler.

Sam said “we have been marketing the pool wrong, we have to call it a spa, and say how the cold water makes your skin so lovely, and the algae gives it exquisiteness.”

We were all happy in the sunshine making jokes about when the public pools will put in naked hot tubs for all of us.


I had arrived at the same time the plumber for the Parks Department had arrived to fix the sink in the girls bathhouse. I said to Sam “I’ll wait to take my hot shower till he is finished, I’m not going to stand naked under the shower while he is there.”

Sam said “the sinks are on the other side, you can take your shower.”

“Are you saying I can be naked under shower while plumber is there,” I giggled, “OK whatever you say, Sam.” When plumber left, I was still on deck, and he made that sign with your fingers, that O which means all is perfect now, and smiled at me. And when I was leaving, I started to giggle. I thought “Sam won’t have any more trouble getting plumbers to fix problems in women’s bathhouse, now that she ruled they can work while the women are naked in the shower.”


I took hot shower and washed my hair, and put on a lot of cream rinse because the dreadlocks are beginning again. And when I arrived back on deck, it was the most glorious view. The blue sky had turned into startling deep blue, the mountains were etched against it, it was a view from heaven.

And I found Bill and both dogs by the bench by the duck pond, and it was beautiful watching the ducks swimming in the water. And one flew and that was incredibly lovely, that white bird flapping its wings. It was so nice sitting there amidst such beauty that Bill didn’t want to leave at first.

But then he said “OK, back into the car.” And when we were in the car he said to all 3 of us, “I gave you all a nice treat,” which was true. And then we got back home and I discovered I had left front door wide open, and I was surprised at myself. But it was luxurious just to walk right in my house. Then I closed the door and took Lulu off the leash and Bill had to spend 20 minutes coaxing Beanie to come out of the car.


Beanie must like driving in the car because when we get home he won’t get out. I was already back in the backyard wrapping presents again, when Beanie finally arrived. I was able to give Lulu her lunch in peace, Beanie has problem of stealing Lulu’s food, because he was in the front seat of the 2nd hand Chrysler refusing to get out, while I cooked lunch for myself, served Lulu delicious fried chicken, and then went to backyard and gift wrapped calendars.

It was a totally nice afternoon....